When you were a kid you would run all goddamn day every day and never get shin splints. You've never even heard of a kid getting shin splints. Why do we get them? When you run for fitness, typically you run a set time and or distance. Consciously or unconsciously you will attempt to meet this goal using the minimum amount of effort or try to conserve some of your energy or endurance for the latter part of the run. This results in an unnatural gait that has more of an up and down pounding motion than a faster rolling action. Think about this: if I grabbed something from you that was really important to you ( Jessica Alba's digits, for instance), you wouldn't jog after me, you would tear off running. That's how you should run if you want to avoid the splints. Don't set a time or distance, don't wear a watch or stopwatch. Just freaking run. When you get tired, stop. Run some more. After a few weeks of doing this you will condition yourself to run in a natural gait. You can then start to reintroduce time/distance training but if you backslide you have to get back on the program. Good luck.

Have to agree with most of the posters - you've probably got a fine case of shin splits. I don't know anything about running or changing gaits, but I do know that mine were caused by a build up of scar tissue in my calves. Basically, I was working my calf muscles too hard skipping and they started building up linkages between the muscle fibres that tied everything up and wouldn't let the muscles work properly. This put too much strain on the insertion points, and bam - shin splints. Solution for me was ART - active release therapy. That is when some sadistic therapist pins your muscle in place and then tears the scar tissue free. Painful as ****, but works like a charm. A good physiotherapist will be able to tell you if you need ART, and give you some nasty stretches and excercises to help get things working normally again.